Incumbent Republican CD3 House Rep. Jeff Hurd is so cocksure he’s going to win his congressional seat again in the November 3 election that he’s holding a “Countdown to Victory Reception” on October 5, well before the election. Not only that, he’s holding his victory party at a venue on Glade Park that is currently being sued by the county for non-compliance with the county Land Development Code (LDC). The venue is the Mesa View Venue at 2729 21 1/2 Road, which has been causing headaches for its rural neighbors.
The lawsuit came about after the Mesa County Commissioners defied the Planning Board, which voted unanimously against granting the owners a permit for an event center. The Commissioners granted a conditional use permit for it anyway.
On April 17, 2025, the Mesa County Planning Commission unanimously recommended the Commissioners deny the Mesa View Venue owners’ application to turn their 35 acre, residentially-zoned property in the Little Park Ranch subdivision into a party and event venue. Despite the negative recommendation, the Commissioners approved a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for the event center anyway. The CUP allows the owners to hold 42 events per year, or 3-4 events per month. The venue can accommodate just under 200 people. The CUP also requires the venue to have “bathroom trailers with handwashing stations,” end events by 10:00 p.m., keep noise to specific limits, water down parking areas to prevent dust, allow amplified music only inside the enclosed “event barn” and other requirements. And all of this partying activity is happening in a residentially-zoned area, not a commercially-zoned area, causing headaches for the neighbors in what is normally a serene, rural area of Glade Park.
Now, after they approved the CUP, the Commissioners are saying they only gave “conditional” approval to the CUP. They say venue owners Charles Hoge, Scott Norton and Cheryl Norton “failed to obtain site plan approval in satisfaction of Land Development Code requirements.” The County also says the owners have “continued their unlawful venue operations” at the property after the County “repeatedly advised them over the past year-plus that site plan approval is required” before they can operate the venue. The county also says the owners “attempted to evade regulatory requirements” by claiming some of their events were hosted by “short term rental” guests and not them.
The County asked the Court to issue an injunction to stop the owners from continuing to hold events there until they comply with the county’s demand that they submit a site plan, but the judge denied the county’s motion, essentially telling the county that it has already allowed the defendants’ illegal behavior to go on for so long that there’s no emergency requiring the court to issue a restraining order to stop it.
Now it’s proving difficult and expensive for the County to rein in the venue after the Commissioners made the mistake of approving it over their planning commission’s unanimous denial, and the event center’s neighbors are also paying a steep price, as are the taxpayers of Mesa County, who now have to foot the legal bills over it.
And now Jeff Hurd will be contributing to the headaches by holding an exclusive, premature, arrogant “victory” party there as well.
Oh! My! God!
What a dummy!